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Facebook and the Bystander Effect

Yes, I know that I am normally posting about my website’s latest fashions and about the contests I sponsor on Polypore and my travels but…..I had to take a second to discuss something. Usually, Facebook is full of rants of current events, calls for release of everyone from political prisoners to freeing distant cousins that are incarcerated at the nearby county jail. Its freedom of speech and one of the many things that makes this country unique.

While in the same breath, its also the thing that allows us to observe one’s true thought when in a setting of relaxation or on a topic in which people have a strong opinion. I was told by a wise person that ‘three things in this world or at the origin of all wars: women, religion, and politics”. I thank that person for all of the wise words throughout my years and understand that while those are the origins, they branch out into many, many subjects. Let’s take one subject that gets a lot of peoples’ blood boiling, especially in the civil and criminal laws, professors, psychologists, researchers, and studies alike – that’s the concept of the Bystander Effect.

Yale University referenced Professor Joel E. Disdale (University of California, San Diego) with his experiment of the Kitty Genovese murder in New York City, March 13, 1964 (Dimsdale, J, 2016). In this case, in short, the subject is chased down and assaulted in public, escapes, is chased down again and stabbed numerous times; this happens over a timespan of 30 minutes. In a series of events, the more people are around, the less likely (about seven percent) feel inclined to actually help the victim.

Then enters Facebook post that proves this theory:

While this Facebook question seems porposterious and downright absurd, it proves a point. There are people who feel that there way of apathy is correct, despite the law or the common, usually for most, unthought of judgement to consider another person’s life over circumstances. While the posting was a harmless scenario that was not a true situation, it allowed people, who replied with personal opinions, to openly discuss the fact that they were within the percentile of bystanders. Amazing.